A 32 nm NPN SOI HBT with Programmable Power Gain and 839 GHzV ftBVCEO Product

The performance of npn SiGe HBT on thin film SOI is investigated at 32 nm technology node by applying body bias. An n-well is created underneath thin BOX to isolate the body biased SOI HBT from SOI CMOS. The results show that the HBT voltage gain and power gain can be programmed by applying body bias to the n-well. This HBT can be used in variable gain amplifiers that are widely used in the receiver chain of RF systems. The HBT is compatible with 32 nm FDSOI technology having 10 nm film thickness and 30 nm BOX thickness. As the breakdown voltage increases by applying the body bias, the SOI HBT with 3 V $V_{CE}$ has very high $f_tBV_{CEO}$ product (839 GHzV). The self heating performance of the proposed SOI HBT is studied. The high voltage gain and power gain (60 dB) of this HBT will be useful in designing analog/RF systems which cannot be achieved using 32 nm SOI CMOS (usually voltage gain is in the range of 10-20 dB).